Chatbots a ‘game changer’ for healthcare, banking

A new study from Juniper Research has found that chatbots will redefine the customer service industry, with healthcare and banking sectors set to benefit the most.

The new research, Chatbots: Retail, eCommerce, Banking & Healthcare 2017-2022, forecasts that chatbots will be responsible for cost savings of over $8 billion per annum by 2022, up from $20 million this year.

In a statement, Juniper said it expects dramatic cost savings to be made in the healthcare and banking sectors, as enquiry resolution times are reduced and cost savings boosted. Research author Lauren Foye explained: “We believe that healthcare and banking providers using bots can expect average time savings of just over 4 minutes per enquiry, equating to average cost savings in the range of $0.50-$0.70 per interaction. As Artificial Intelligence advances, reducing reliance on human representatives undoubtedly spells job losses.”

Juniper found that many bots are suited to enquiries such as healthcare diagnosis, where users can select predefined answers allowing bots to assess health issues and provide a recommended course of action. However, as AI capabilities advance, bots will be able to aid in more sophisticated healthcare diagnostics, such as monitoring and analysis of mental health.

Juniper forecast that the success rate of bot interactions in the healthcare sector (those completed without relocation to a human operator) will move from 12 percent currently, to over 75 percent in 2022. In the banking sector, Juniper expects this to reach over 90 percent in 2022.

Meanwhile SMS chatbots, which are likely to be less successful in generating revenues than app-based bots, can offer a ubiquitous service for mass messaging. Governments, for example, could use chatbots in times of emergency.

Juniper believes that A2P (application to person) messaging providers will adopt chatbots as a means to offer information to consumers and forecasts the number of A2P SMS sent from chatbot interactions to exceed 100 billion by 2022.